Haynes is best known for its car manuals, less so for washing machines, computers, mankind (no really – ‘120,000BC to the Present Day’) and bicycles.The inspiration for The Bike Book came from a keen cyclist at Haynes’ Sparkford factory (just down the road from Castle Cary), and the 1994 volume is now in its 4th incarnation.

Editors and sub-editors tend to know little about bicycles, allowing all sorts of bloopers to get into print, leading novice cycle commuters to buy carbon fibre grunge-inserts, zillions of derailleur gears and flo- yellow skin-tight Lycra.Yes, The Bike Book includes plenty of knobbly tyres and sexed-up racing machines, but it’s a well-written and carefully researched book that covers hub gears and mudguards too.

Most people of modest mechanical ability should be able to change a cable, or adjust most species of brake or gear mechanism using this book. Just for the record, the 4th edition has been updated to include STi and Ergopower combined brake and gear levers, hydraulic discs, suspension forks and those troublesome Aheadset things.There are also a couple of new pages specific to women, presumably following criticism of male-centricity.

In the grumbley department, we can’t agree with the sub-heading, ‘Helmet wearing is voluntary, not a legal requirement, but few bike riders are brave enough to venture on to the roads without one.’ That’s a misleading and one-sided dismissal of a complex debate. We also lament the passing of line drawings, as some of the 800 colour photographs are a bit small and indistinct, but this seems to be a publishing-wide phenomena.

The Bike Book 4th Edition . 2003 . £14.99 . 178 pages . ISBN 1 84425 000 8 . Haynes Publishing